LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. – The “say no to drugs” campaign in schools may not be cutting it.
There is a rise in fentanyl and opioid use among kids and teens, that experts and educators say more needs to be done about.
Some schools in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles, now have naloxone, or the brand-name Narcan, stocked in their nurses’ offices, giving staff a quick way to reverse a possible opioid overdose.
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT REVIVED WITH NARCAN AFTER USING VAPE SUSPECTED TO BE LACED WITH FENTANYL
Naloxone has been the only antidote to opioids for over 50 years, according to the National Library of Medicine, but it was initially used by first responders and hospitals. In recent years, public libraries have started to keep them on site.
If the reversal drug had been more available in 2012, it could have saved one mother’s 20-year-old son.
Aimee Dunkle founded The Solace Foundation of Orange County, the first naloxone distribution program in the area, in honor of her son Ben. Ben accidentally overdosed in a car after a years-long battle with substance use.
“He’d been in a treatment center and had left with a group of others, and he overdosed in a car three minutes from the fire station,” Dunkle said. “The three people who he was with did not call 911.”
Instead of calling 911, they took Ben’s body out of the car. He then had a heart attack and remained on life support for eight days.
“I knew that the only way it could have been prevented is if one of those three people had carried naloxone. They would have saved his life,” Dunkle said. “They weren’t bad people. They made a bad choice through fear, fear of going to jail.”
Less than 20 miles away in Laguna Beach, schools changed their board policies in the last couple of years to permit Narcan on campus.
This is the first school year the Laguna Beach Unified School District is taking part. Nurses are trained in administering it, while training is optional for teachers and other staff.
A total of fourteen school…
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